Ahmedabad: Me-To-We Retreat

A glorious in-person Me-To-We retreat in Ahmedabad recently came to a close. Many participants shared that in the 2.5 days they teared up as they might not have over several years in their life. And the volunteers, after working so hard for several days to several weeks, also left in tears feeling deeply grateful for the deep vibration of love that was co-created. 

As one participant shared "The service offered by the volunteers was very touching and inspiring and to realise that one can do so much for a stranger just to make him/her enjoy and allow them to make the most of their time in a retreat .... This retreat impacted everyone positively and inspired me to do whatever little i can to bring some happiness in others".

 

'The Eagle And The Chicken':

A fable is told about an eagle that thought he was a chicken. When the eagle was very small, he fell from the safety of his nest. A chicken farmer found the eagle, brought him to the farm, and raised him in a chicken coop among his many chickens. The eagle grew up doing what chickens do, living like a chicken, and believing he was a chicken. A naturalist came to the chicken farm to see if what he had heard about an eagle acting like a chicken was really true. He knew that an eagle is king of the sky. He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, pecking at the ground, and acting very much like a chicken. The farmer explained to the naturalist that this bird was no longer an eagle. He was now a chicken because he had been trained to be a ... [Read more]

Seed questions for reflection: How did you relate to the notion of taking away the easy reminders of our past conditioning in order to help us be truer to our authentic selves? Can you share a personal story of a time you took away contextual reminders in order to step into a strength you always had? What helps you realize what's trapping you from spreading your authentic wings?

Positive Experiences Are Up, Global Emotions Report Finds

Each year the polling organization Gallup distributes a global survey to glean the emotional state of the world. The recently released 2023 Global Emotion Report indicates the negative experience index is down while the positive experience index is up, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels.

"The situation can be crumbling around you, but we still see positivity. Safety was an issue, but you have this strong presence of social networks" said Julie Ray, editor of Gallup Global News.

[Read the full story here...]

Re-Member

"Our Earth walk is to look within, to see that we are connected to all things. There is no separation, only in the mind." L. Frank

Watch the stirring video exploring our shared humanity below.

 

A Look at the Rise of Nature Prescriptions

"It was a naturopathic doctor (ND) who handed me my first PaRx—a park prescription, sometimes called a ParkRx or NatureRx. I had exhausted all the treatment options with my family doctor and had turned to alternative medicine for answers. ... I was to stand in the grass for 10 minutes, feeling the cool blades tickling my toes. This was written down on an actual prescription pad, and I carried the slip home with me in my bag. The prescription felt silly at first, but I dutifully followed it every day throughout that summer ... And I was surprised to find that it helped—my lunchtime communion with this small greenspace seemed to set the tone for a better mood in the afternoon and post-work evening."

Nature prescriptions or "nature pills" are rising among medical practitioners. A movement in Canada launched the Park Prescriptions (PaRX) initiative with the BC Parks Foundation, which provides health care professionals nature prescription files, codes, and instructions for logging prescriptions for patients to allocate regular time in nature. In Canada, over 5,000 physicians are registered in the program. [Read more ...]

The Great DIY Revival: Meet The People Who'll Try To Fix Anything 

A movement of repair cafes, launched in Amsterdam in 2009, is sweeping across the UK. In them, the "happy tinkerers" fix everything from radios and toasters to lawnmowers and laptops. There are nearly 580 cafes now serving as skillshare initiatives and social enterprises while helping to reduce carbon emissions.

"If we reuse the 13m items a year we currently throw away or recycle, we could save 930 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to waste management company Suez". [Read the full story here...]

The Solutionary Way

Zoe Weil had forty-five youngsters identify the world’s biggest problems, and was surprised when only five of them thought we could solve them. If children can’t imagine solving problems, “what will motivate them to try to make a difference?”

Then, with their eyes closed, she helped them imagine a day in the future where all the problems had been solved, and questioned, “What role did you play in helping to bring about this better world?” Afterwards, when she asked again if they thought we could solve the problems, forty hands went up.

Zoe expanded this thinking to help people learn to be solutionaries. Solutionaries start by imagining that a better world is possible. Through a four-step process, they “learn how to identify unjust, unsustainable, and inhumane systems and transform them so that they do the most good and least harm to people, animals, and the ecosystems that sustain life.” [Read more ...]

Lotus Grown From 200-year-old Seed In Full Bloom At Kyoto's Byodoin Temple

Lotus flowers from a 200-year-old seed fully bloomed at an ancient Buddhist temple in Western Japan last month. Kamii Monsho, head priest at Kyoto's Byodoin Temple, hopes the flowers are therapeutic to visitors. [Read more here...]

Infinity of an Open Heart

Cynthia Li invites us along on an illuminating experience while kayaking in a wilderness. In the silence and blanket of darkness, she stops paddling and begins to drift. She feels suspended in the “dance of the oneness” -- of past, present, and future. She feels both tremendous terror and tremendous freedom hoping to “trust enough in my aloneness to dissolve fully into this great emptiness.”

Cynthia shares further how a path to that great emptiness is through the heart. The heart is “the strongest electromagnetic field in the body… sending and receiving, transforming energy with everything that it touches.” The heart empties and fills. She explains that if the heart holds onto attachments such as "I want this story" or "I like being full," it cannot send. When we empty ourselves, when we connect to our hearts and the emptiness, it opens the space where “life can play and create itself, through me, through all of us,” and create a new story.

Watch (or read) her recent talk during a New Story Pod call here - and scroll to the bottom for a bonus video of a special song from Madhu Anziani. Madhu sings, "Pulse, dissolve, pulse, dissolve -- that's the life of the universe..."

Let Your Garden Grow Wild

Ecological horticulturist Rebecca McMackin has found success increasing biodiversity in the most unlikely of places - the parched concrete of derelict shipping piers in New York City.

"Most gardeners try to maintain these clean, sterile environments that are the exact opposite of what wildlife wants. The more we can stop being tidy the more wildness we can bring into our gardens and landscapes, the better habitat we provide" says Rebecca. "All it takes is a pot on your stoop to make a difference". Watch her powerful TED Talk below.

 

For more, check out this story about one man in Canada, Wolf Ruck, who is rewilding his garden amidst efforts by the Ecological Design Lab to help local governments update their gardening bylaws to support biodiversity. Read the full story here.

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